How to Control Your Cortisol & Overcome Burnout

Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, we are discussing Cortisol. In particular, how to control your Cortisol in order to avoid burnout, or should you already be feeling burnt out, how to overcome burnout. Now it's hard for me to overemphasize just how important Cortisol is. In fact, in the late stages of preparing for this episode, it dawned on me that if ever there were an episode of the Huberman Lab Podcast that people could benefit from in terms of their health and well-being, this would be that episode. And I say that because as you'll soon learn, cortisol, the biology of it, how it impacts your mood, your sleep, your immune system, your overall feelings of well-being, not just in the moment, but over the long term, and your ability to control cortisol at different portions of the day and night, makes it one of the most, if not the most powerful levers for your health and well-being. So I'm very excited to get into the material for today's discussion about cortisol, how to control it, and how to avoid and overcome burnout. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, today's episode does include sponsors. Okay. Let's discuss cortisol. Now, I believe that most people have heard of cortisol, and most everyone that hears the word cortisol, hears it somewhere nearby the word stress. And it makes sense why you would hear about cortisol in that context. Because indeed, Cortisol is a hormone that's made and released in response to stress. Now, the problem with thinking about Cortisol simply as a stress hormone, is that it's doing a lot of other things unrelated to stress that are super important and positive for you. However, it all depends on how high your Cortisol levels are and when. So during today's discussion, there's gonna be a very prominent theme which is your Cortisol Rhythm, or more particularly, your twenty four hour so called circadian rhythm in cortisol. And here's the important first thing to remember, you want your cortisol high early in the day shortly after waking, and you want your cortisol low in the hours right before sleep and in the first hours of sleep. If you remember nothing else from this episode, please remember that because if you get those two things correct, everything else in terms of health and wellness and performance, all of that will be reinforced by getting your cortisol rhythm correct. So today, I will explain how to get your cortisol rhythm correct. I will also explain what stress does to cortisol …